Barbados to Legislate Medical Marijuana before Christmas

It began with Canada, then Jamaica and Antigua & Barbuda all taking bold steps to relax laws surrounding the use of marijuana. And the high seems to spreading across the region, with Barbados making it known that it is working on establishing a framework for medical cannabis.

Caribbean Chronicle understands that Prime Minister Mia Mottley herself cited the island’s inability to miss out on the growing industry.

“We will put a frameword in place for medical cannabis within the next week or so,” Mottley said. “We have more or less taken a decision. We just need sme refining and training with practitioners.”

The announcement came at the CIBC First Caribbean Barbados Client Economic Forum on Friday.

Of course, the Prime Minister pointed out the need for careful consideration and regulation of the drug and proper research to allow for a strategic implementation and positioning of Barbados as a leader in the industry – at least in the Caribbean.

“We must not make the mistakes of history,” Mottley said.

“Why would we seek to export when we can package and extract maximum value by having clinics as well as recuperative villagesfor people who want to deal with a certain aspect of pain management?” the Prime Minister questioned.

The Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES) recently carried out a poll on the decimalization of marijuana in several Caribbean islands, including Barbados where it was found there that some 45 percent of residents were in favor of such a move.